Strange Animal:
This album was, for the most part, written basically immediately as soon as I had finished recording Transfem Slacker. I had finally gotten to a point where I felt like I could do it, write and record full, proper songs that I could listen to and feel proud of, not cringe away from afterwards. I wanted to keep this energy going and that meant writing more songs, though eventually I kind of fell back out of it once my dad got home and no longer had the place free to myself to record as much as I liked. 8 of the songs were written during the summer of 2023 while the last 2 were written in November. By this point I had moved to my mum’s house due to my dad leaving the country to China, my mum had a job which meant that for a good chunk of the day I was home alone which once again gave me the opportunity to record more songs. Though by the time I had the album together as a whole I decided it would be best to wait for my next birthday to put it out, it seemed like a fun little releasing quirk - putting albums out on my birthday. It also meant I got to put off actually mastering the album, which is my least favourite part of the process, aside from the whole act of marketing.
I love the cover art for this album so much! It’s once again done by my wonderful friend MementoMidi who did a really incredible job at realising the vision I had in my head. I don’t think it’s at all obvious but it is meant to be another reference to being trans sexual. I view being trans and the perception around it to be very othered from cis people, you get treated differently and viewed as some sort of strange animal. I wanted it to be this chimera with the base of a Tasmanian tiger, a now extinct animal, because I found the idea of this animal that went extinct around the time human beings had the ability to document that sort of thing to be really sad and it really got its claws into me. The other animals are ones that are usually viewed as dangerous or aggressive, which felt matching with how a lot of media, unjustly, portrays trans women. Also it does make for a really awesome looking creature.
1. Time Away
I wrote Time Away with the idea of it being the first song on the album, that it was about the time between the two albums, the same sort of meta-titling that Be Right Back was based on. I was trying to experiment some more with the split guitar sound for the riff on this song, alternating between left and right for each part, I think it sounds pretty cool. Lyrically you can tell this song was pretty soon after Transfem Slacker, it’s still talking about being tired and general slacker apathy. I think the chorus is pretty fun vocally, it takes the general Main Vocal + Backing Vocals approach I do but plays with it a little by having the first part of it with just the main vocal and then adding the backing vocals in after.
2. Can't Refuse
This song’s another attempt at that dirty, sleazy club sort of sound, which is really driven by that bassline. This song carries on the themes of being bossed around by a partner in a relationship from the first album. I realise I write a lot of these songs from a pretty submissive perspective, what’s that about? I like how the chorus kinda lifts out of the sleaze and dirt, feels like you’re rising up into the blue sky.
3. Something Else
This song was written again with a theme of relationship issues, not feeling valued and feeling stuck with this person, stopping you from pursuing the things you really want. At the time I didn’t consciously think about this but I’m realising it probably says a lot about the relationship I was in at the time, funny. I really like how this song goes from the darker, bass-driven previous song into a really fun, upbeat guitar riff driven song. The riff during the chorus also makes me really happy,
4. Afraid To Ask
Originally this song was written as two songs that were meant to lead into each other, the structure of the whole thing was originally pretty different too, pretty much backwards to how it is now. The guitar solo on this song totally rips, I think I was getting a lot more into playing solos on this album because they’re incredibly fun to do. I think initially when writing songs I was a little apprehensive about including solos because “oh it’s not indie rock/punk/slacker rock bluh bluh” whatever that means. Now I really love doing solos, they’re great!.
5. Keep Away
This one’s a pretty fun little pop song. I’ve always wanted to write a really simple but effective and catchy pop song. It’s also the shortest song I’d made so far at only 2 minutes, a real get in, get out sort of affair.
6. Hopeless
Which makes it funny that right after is the longest song I’d done so far. This was the first song written after I’d moved out from my dad’s to my mum’s. It was pretty odd having to adjust to a new space while recording vocals, luckily I got used to it pretty quickly. I’m moving again in a couple weeks so hopefully it’s as easy this time as it was then. Originally this song wasn’t as long, however, a friend at the time insisted I put a big guitar solo in because she thought it would be really cool. Let it be known that I am still a small enough artist that you can probably get me to change/make a song the way you’d like it by reaching out and making friends with me first. [NOTE: remove this bit after I get successful so I don’t end up with thousands of people messaging me telling me how to make songs].
7. Gone
This song was the second one written at my mum’s and the last one written for the album. It’s pretty strongly about my feelings about my dad leaving for China and how I was dealing with it at the time. I’d started smoking a little bit during this time, not hugely or anything, I’ve never gone out and bought cigarettes or anything, but I had a few hanging around the house that I pinched and smoked. Luckily, it hasn’t taken hold of me or anything, I smoke a tiny bit while I’m out but I’m not actively wanting nicotine in my day-to-day, thankfully.
8. Keeping Me Away
Another in the many songs about me not having a good sleep schedule. A person I was friends with at the time suggested I retitle my songs to be more mysterious, an example being to rename this to klonopin. I thought that was a really stupid idea. I’m not too interested in obscuring my songs or building up some fake mystery around myself. My songs are pretty sincere and I wear my heart on my sleeve, the titles being direct is part of that. Plus it makes them a lot easier to remember and find, which is the point of song titles. Unfortunately I’m not Fall Out Boy so don’t expect any insanely long song titles from me.
9. This Is Why
A heavier, louder one before the end of the album. I wanted something aggressive for this one and I think the more distorted, crunchy lower guitar on this song pairs really well with the lighter guitar on the right, that sort of contrast always makes songs sonically interesting to me. Again, this song is about not sleeping much and also some feelings of resentment to people breathing down my neck about my life and what I’m doing with it. Ironically enough while I’m writing this my sleep schedule is again pretty terrible.
10. Never Doubt It
I wanted this song to follow Be Right Back thematically, a statement that Rose Orlando will return next time on… It’s a tradition I think is pretty fun. I really love the use of harmonics in the riff, creates this really satisfying clunk type of sound that makes it stand out a bunch. Like with Be Right Back this song also includes a pretty fun little solo, at some point a Rose Orlando album will reach 100% solo/song saturation.